(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a low-friction TiAgN coating material for vehicle component. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a low-friction TiAgN coating material, which has not only high-stiffness and low-friction characteristics like DLC, but also high temperature wear resistance, and a method for producing the same.
(b) Background Art
In general, a plasma coating technique may be used to coat an untreated material with another material, thereby adding mechanical and functional characteristics to the untreated material. Plasma coating techniques may be divided into two general categories: chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD).
Several types of PVD are in common use such as, for example, vacuum deposition, sputtering, Ion plating, and the like. I Ion plating is being used in various coating methods according to the plasma activations method and coating material ionization methods. For example, the arc ion plating is used to vapor ionize a coating material (target) as a negative electrode using arc discharge; consequently, it has been successfully used for hard coating because it has rapid a coating rate due to its rapid evaporation rate, which generates good productivity, as well as high ionization, crash, and migration energies.
Diamond like carbon (DLC) coating has been mainly used for a low-friction coating for conventional vehicle components. However, while DLC coating has an advantage in that it has already been mass-produced and broadly used, it suffers from significant problems because it has low abrasion resistance and insufficient friction characteristics at both high and low temperature. Furthermore, it also has a problem of relatively long friction stable sections.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a component coating layer that has high-stiffness properties, low friction properties, and high temperature wear properties to replace this conventional DLC coating.